The Labor enquirer., 1887-02-19
What a Vassar College Girl
Has to Say About
the Seven.
Something That None Of the
Capitalist Papers Even Yet
Dare to Publish.
Yet After Reading There Doesn't
Appear to be Anything but
Truth In 1t.

1.-THE following article y as written 70
an eastern paper bv Young lady VIII
recently graduated from Vassar college
Notwithstanding the very mild an,
lsdy.like tenor Of the article, the least
ern editor" very kindly said to her tha
he dared mol" publish 1t. For editort
more than any other class of men. thi
is " the land Of the free and the hom
Of the brave."]
EDITOR: ] am an eastern woman 80
journing for time in this city. and Il
the papers Of the East. which Ihold II
much greater respect than those of thi
city, / look for fair hearing in q matte
which has not had one in the colunn nj
Of the press. I refer to the case Of tn,
so-called Anarchists. I attended theil
trial and was also in court during the re
cent motion for new one. have nc
sympathy with their doctrine. but that
fact shall not keep me silent when SET
those prosecuted who do not advocate
those doctrines. Now that thousands
all over the world, who know nothing
Of the trial. the defendants nor their
characters, except what they have gath.
cred from prejndiced press, are ventil.
ating their views freely. feel it not
only my right but my duty to tell what
/ have found to be the truth in the
matter.
] entered the court, for the first time.
expecting to see q fendlsh looking
wretch in each one of the chairs set for
the prisoners. but prejudiced as | was.
could not detect an Unlocking man
amongst them several had noble faces.
However, I felt no sympathy for them
until found that every possible means
was being employed to convict them ''on
principle" whether they we're guilty
under the indictment or not. Then, in
spite of constant warning to the effect
that the public would not brook shv in.
quirv into either the true facts of the
case or the methods adopted in its pros
ecution, l set myself TO learn the truth,
an undertaking hich has cost me many
weeks Of labor. The general public has
not had an opportunity to make such
inquiry, but has had to accept the state
ments of the capitalistic press. which
has exhausted itself in abuse and mis-
representation of these eight men
hence the extreme bitterness Of the pre-
vailing prejudice against them. 1t is
plain why the capitalist, or, more par
ticularly, the monopolists, should cry
against these labor agitators, when it is
taken into consideration tina. they were
the leaders of the hated eight-hour move
ment. Their enemies, however. could
prove nothing against their previous
characters; they had been unusually
good citizens, good fathers and sons,
good neighbors. They had committed
no crime except that Of agitating the Ia
boz. question, but that was "a crime Of
the deepest dyep They had dared to
tell the wage-worker. who ought to be
kept in servility () that they had right
to the common decencies of life, and
such teachings as that could not be tol-
Grated for G moment, ae they were cal
culated to, make the workingmen restive
under the yoke! II these so.called
Anarchists had not been actuated by
the most disinterested motives in their
work, would two of them have refused
fine positions to abandon it? Is it not
"a Christ.like love of humanity that has
induced one Of these TO devote ten years
of his youth to this work, to the exclu-
sion Of all care for self, or for those EN-
joyments in the striving after which
other men spend their lives? Like
Christ, he has been pt rsecuted in re-
turn. He has patiently labored, not only
to elevate the wage-workers. but to re-
claim the degraded and to do for the
destitute. 1t was bv the showing up oi
dastardly crime perpetrated upon the
person of a friendless enyear-old
servant girl, BY policeman of this city
that Mr.. Spies first brought down upor
himself the wrath of the united police
force. As a punishment for this ant
many other "black deeds" committed
by him. the police have taxed to the ut
most their inventive power in unearth
ing evidence of conspiracy which
never existed. These honest upholder
OF Justice did not succeed in proving
conspiracy-owing not at all to the wan
Of effort on their part, but to ignorance
But that, of course, made no differenc
in the verdict The terrified public, In
10 whose ears the press shrieked ths
the mere existence of Anarchism mean
destruction to property and annihils
ton to human life and to government
clamored that speedy example shonl
be made from the Socialists ranks. A
example is about to be made. and tn
} victims have been selected with discrin
: ination.
It is certain that the good judgmeI
of these would-be social reformers wi
liza as,rsv nv neal for their cause;